Care and Feeding
by StarWarrior72
Summary: Darth Vader has discovered his son, and he has taken the boy into his home, as he has longed to do for a long time. However, Luke demanded that Obi-Wan come with him, and Vader is not pleased. Luke, of course, is completely unaware of this. As far as the four-year-old has perceived, he's come home to his daddy.


Luke tiptoed into Daddy's room. His bare feet made no noise against the cold metal floor, and Daddy didn't move. He stood up as tall as he could to see over Daddy's bed. Obi-Wan had said that Daddy was a bad man, but he didn't look so bad to Luke. In fact, he looked nice and warm. Much warmer than sleeping in his own bed.

"Daddy?" Luke whispered, not really wanting to wake him up. Daddy still didn't move, so Luke jumped, hooking one leg over the edge of the bed and swinging himself up. He knelt perfectly still for a few moments, staring down at Daddy. Daddy still didn't move, though, so Luke pulled the blankets away from Daddy's side and crawled in.

Daddy had come to his aunt and uncle's farm looking for him, and then he'd carried Luke away to get Obi-Wan. He'd wanted to take Obi-Wan away, but Luke had begged until Daddy'd let him stay. He'd let Obi-Wan sleep on the floor beside Luke's bed. He hadn't actually said Luke could come over to his room if he got cold, but Luke hadn't wanted to snuggle with Obi-Wan. He didn't really know Obi-Wan, and he didn't have a clue why he felt important, like someone he should keep around. Daddy, on the other hand, was simple. He was Luke's daddy. Of course he'd hug him.

Luke pressed his face against Daddy, pulling the blankets more tightly around himself. Daddy moved in his sleep, and Luke froze for a moment, but Daddy just put his arm around Luke. Cautiously, Luke looked up into Daddy's face, but he was still fast asleep. They looked a lot like each other, Luke thought, everything from their hair to their chins. He closed his eyes and snuggled closer. He was warming up nicely, but his feet were still cold.

He felt around cautiously with one toe until he found his daddy's knees. He pushed one foot between his daddy's legs, and one under, and Daddy woke up with a yell, which he quickly stifled with one hand. Luke cowered in the blankets, as Daddy turned to him wild-eyed.

Daddy recognized him, and let out a sigh, "Oh, it's just you."

Nervously, Luke nodded, and the door to the room suddenly closed, frightening Luke still further.

Daddy put a hand in Luke's hair, "It's all right, that was me. Your feet are like ice."

Luke nodded, and Daddy took one of his feet in both hands and rubbed it gently warming it up. He was wearing an undershirt and pants, which had rolled up to above his knees, where Luke had put his feet to warm them up. Now that he was awake, and had figured out who Luke was, he seemed much calmer. He let go of Luke's foot and took the other one, rubbing it as well. Luke pulled the blankets up around his shoulders.

"Didn't Obi-Wan know better than to put you to bed in your day clothes?" Daddy asked, putting down his other foot and putting the blankets around his feet as well.

"No," Luke said, and Daddy stood up, "Don't leave me!" Luke hurriedly added.

"I'm not going anywhere," Daddy said gently, walking over to his dresser and pulling out a rolled up lump. Then he walked over to his desk and took out a couple of bands. Then he came back to Luke and pulled him to the edge of the bed. He unrolled a pair of huge black socks and pulled them over Luke's feet, elastic banding them above his knees.

"Thanks," Luke said, wiggling his toes, and feeling warmer.

Daddy smiled, and walked back to his dresser, taking out a cloak, which he wrapped around Luke. Luke forced his arms through the sleeves as far as they would go, and Daddy rolled them up for him. He couldn't think of an immediate solution for how long the rest of the cloak was, but Daddy had already picked him up. At all of four years old, Luke was really too old to be carried, but it was warm in his daddy's arms, and besides that, Daddy had never carried him before, so he didn't say anything.

"Would you like some breakfast?" Daddy asked.

Luke nodded. He'd slept pretty well in his own bed before coming to snuggle Daddy. It just hadn't been warm enough to lie in after he woke up. Daddy seemed to be doing okay too, so Luke guessed that he'd been about to wake up as well anyway.

Daddy carried Luke down a set of stairs, the trailing edge of the cloak getting tangled between his knees once, and put Luke on the counter.

"I'll make pancakes, if you want," Daddy said, "I'm not great at cooking, but I can manage that much."

Luke nodded, "I love pancakes." This was not _really_ true, but Daddy didn't need to know that. Pancakes were okay, but Luke would have rather had eggs and toast.

Daddy got out some ingredients and put them on the counter beside Luke. Luke watched silently as his daddy mixed some ingredients together before speaking, "Daddy, how'd you find me?"

"You got the flu a couple of weeks ago, and you were admitted to the hospital," Daddy said, "It was the first time that your guardians ever left a paper trail."

"A paper trail?" Luke asked, confused.

"A solid way for me to find you. As soon as I heard about it, I came looking for you."

Luke grinned, "Best flu ever!"

Daddy laughed, and pushed aside Luke's legs and the cloak to reach into a drawer under where he'd put Luke. Luke smiled happily at him as he continued mixing things. He was starting to think he might not have slept quite as well as he'd thought, so he slipped over to Daddy, and rested his head on Daddy's shoulder. Daddy stopped mixing for a moment, and put his hand on the back of Luke's head, and Luke felt him sigh, his hand shifting as he relaxed.

"I've missed you," Daddy said softly.

He sounded so sad that Luke looked up at him. He was frowning, and Luke thought he might have been crying. He didn't like that, so he stretched his neck up as far as he could and kissed Daddy's cheek, "I've missed you too."

Daddy immediately brushed the tear away, and smiled at Luke, "We'll never be separated again," he promised. Then he set Luke back against the wall, and returned his full attention to cooking, like it was how he was stopping himself from crying any more. Luke bunched up the hood of the cloak as a pillow and curled up.

"What would you like in your pancakes?" Daddy asked.

Luke sat up straight, "Chocolate chips!" He'd had that once at Windy's house, but his aunt had never been willing to put them in at home.

"Shh, you want to wake Obi-Wan?" Daddy asked, his eyes sparkling blue.

Luke shook his head and covered his mouth with his hands, showing he wouldn't talk again.

Daddy nodded and brushed aside the long trail of cloak once again and pulled out a bag of chocolate chips, which he opened, and ate a few before offering it to Luke. Not wanting to seem greedy, Luke took just a few. Then Daddy dumped most of the bag into the pancake mix.

"You boys are making a lot of noise for people who don't want to wake anyone," someone said from out of Luke's range of vision.

Daddy jumped, and spun. His eyes flashed back to yellow, and Luke frowned. He'd liked Daddy's blue eyes much better.

"Kenobi."

So it _was_ Obi-Wan! Luke jumped down off the counter and ran around the fridge to hug him. One of his sleeves had come unrolled, so when he flung his arms around Obi-Wan, who had bent down just in time, it flew around them.

"We're making pancakes!" Luke told him, "Daddy said he'd make them with chocolate chips," he informed him, "They're gonna be great."

Luke let go of Obi-Wan and grabbed his hand, pulling him into the kitchen.

Obi-Wan picked Luke up, and restored him to his place on the counter, turning to Daddy, "You have a little helper?"

Daddy's eyes had turned a sort of sick greenish, but at the words, they slipped a shade closer to blue and he answered sarcastically, "Actually, his little legs have been in the way quite a bit."

Obi-Wan picked Luke back up and placed him on top of the fridge. Luke giggled, looking down at the kitchen and kicking his legs against the freezer door. "Better?"

Daddy's eyes got completely blue again, and Luke felt better. The yellow upset him, because it was what Daddy did when he wasn't happy. The blue was much happier. Besides that, it was just like Luke's eyes, and Luke liked looking like his daddy.

"Yes," Daddy said.

"Do you have any tea?" Obi-Wan asked, opening a cupboard and scanning the contents.

"No," Daddy said, "You know I never drank the stuff."

Obi-Wan went to the fridge instead, putting the end of the cloak in Luke's lap before opening the door. He pulled out a number of sealed containers, putting each one on the counter, "You don't even have any fresh herbs?" he demanded.

"I'm not a gourmet chef," Daddy said, taking the first pancakes from the pan and passing them up to Luke, "I don't have any syrup."

"I suppose I'll just have to make it with the food prep," Obi-Wan said, "It never can make it taste right, but it's better than nothing."

"It can't make anything taste right," Daddy said, going back to the pan and spooning in more mix, "Why do you think I learned to cook?"

"To be honest," Obi-Wan said, "I thought it might have been somehow against your genetic coding. You've come a long way from your old slews."

"Daddy?" Luke asked, "What's a slew?"

"A poorly made soup or stew," Obi-Wan told him, programming the food prep, "Your father's specialty."

"Oh," Luke said, taking another bite of pancake.

"Once we've had breakfast," Obi-Wan said, "I'll clean out the fridge for you, and then Luke and I will go grocery shopping."

Daddy didn't seem very happy with that, but at least his eyes didn't turn yellow, "I can take care of myself, Obi-Wan. I'm not your apprentice anymore."

"Anakin, you will always be my apprentice. And you will undoubtedly give yourself food poisoning if you eat the contents of some of those containers," he said, waving a hand at the stack of plastic boxes he'd put on the counter.

"It is no longer your concern," Daddy countered, "And besides that, my name is Darth Vader."

Obi-Wan nodded absently, putting a mug under the food prep and filling it with synthesized tea, "Vader is an act," he said calmly, "You are, and have always been, Anakin Skywalker."

Daddy was starting to turn red, angry at what Obi-Wan was saying, and Luke pushed himself off of the fridge onto the counter, then down to the floor before running to his daddy and hugging his legs, "You're not Anakin to me," he promised, "I'll call you Daddy no matter what."

Daddy looked down at him and let out a breath, his face returning to its usual colour, "Thank you, Luke," he picked Luke up and put him on the counter beside the stove as he flipped over the next couple of pancakes.

Obi-Wan had taken his tea with him and knelt in front of the refrigeration unit. He was continuing pulling out containers, "Honestly, how have you managed to keep yourself alive?"

He took out a couple of fast food wrappers with half-molded food in them and still more containers. Once he'd fully emptied out the prepared food, all that remained was a sorry looking head of lettuce and the typical contents of a fridge that are rarely finished like mustard and jams. He took the stack of containers to the garbage chute and started dumping the food in.

As he put in one of the fast food wrappers, which had a creeping mold on most of it, he said, "Maybe I should sterilize your fridge before we refill it."

At this, Daddy threw down the spatula, "I can clean my own fridge!" he shouted, and his eyes turned yellow again.

"Daddy?" Luke asked cautiously, reaching for his daddy's arm.

"Oh, certainly," Obi-Wan continued, not having seen Daddy's eyes, "I know how you feel about noxious chemicals. I would only worry that you might leave enough in to burn through a person's system."

Daddy seemed to be getting angrier, so Luke grabbed his arm and held on tight. Daddy'd looked like this before he'd tried to hurt Luke's aunt and uncle, and again when he'd tried to send Obi-Wan away. It frightened Luke, and he was very glad when Daddy turned back to him and picked him up, sighing again like it helped him calm down.

At last, Luke heard Obi-Wan turning to him and Daddy, "Anakin, you must know I'm only joking," he said gently.

Daddy's arms tightened around Luke, "Yes, I do. I'm sorry, I overreacted. But I've been living alone for the last four years. I'd forgotten how to deal with others' intrusiveness."

"I apologize," Obi-Wan said, "But please allow me to refill the fridge for you."

Daddy nodded, and passed Luke to Obi-Wan, "Why don't you go get Luke ready to go to the grocery store, and I'll finish making your breakfast."

Luke squirmed around in Obi-Wan's arms, "Are you going to come with us?"

"No," Daddy said, kissing the top of Luke's head, "I'm too well known. Just make sure Obi-Wan gets some good food as well as his vegetables and tea."

"He means microwavable meals," Obi-Wan told Luke, and Daddy smiled and nodded.

"Okay," Luke promised, "And cookies too."

"That's right," Daddy told him, passing Obi-Wan a card, "And I know I took you away before you could get your things, so if you need a toy or anything to snuggle with at night, get that as well."

"Can't I snuggle you? Obi-Wan could have my bed," Luke said.

"Alright," Daddy said, and Obi-Wan carried Luke back upstairs and helped him to take off the socks Daddy had given him, and put on his boots. Then he took Luke's hand and led him back downstairs. He sat on his daddy's lap as they ate, and then followed Obi-Wan to flag down a taxi to take them to the grocery store.


End file.
